Education startup Wayfinder raised $6.6 million from investors in a Series A round that included the Oregon Venture Fund.
The company is fully remote, but company founder and CEO Patrick Cook-Deegan is based in Bend.
The company makes curriculum for sixth- through 12th-grade students focused on social emotional learning. This means helping students find belonging and purpose and how to move through the world and take actions that are meaningful to them. The lessons are teacher-led and include different elements such as class discussions, small group work, games and individual reflection, said Matthew Winn, chief of staff and director of partnerships.
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The company has about 35 employees mostly on the West Coast. It has been hiring aggressively and plans to continue that as the company scales, Winn said. Plans include adding in engineering and in curriculum development.
The company’s products reach 60,000 students across 34 states and 15 countries. In Oregon customers include Bend-La Pine Schools, Gladstone School District and schools in Eugene. The research the products are based on comes from work Cook-Deegan did at the Stanford Institute of Design and Stanford’s K12 Innovation Lab.
This round of funding was led by Long Night Ventures and included REACH Capital, Evolve Ventures, Not Boring Capital, the Designer Fund and Oregon Venture Fund. As part of the deal, Alline Akintore of OVF is joining the Wayfinder board as an observer.
“Patrick and the Wayfinder team represent what we look for in an ideal founding team, especially their grit, tenacity, and strong sense of mission,” Akintore said in a written statement. “As investors we really value the Wayfinder vision, and we want the next generation to be equipped with the tools to navigate a world that looks very different from the one we grew up in. We believe Wayfinder’s platform holds the key to unlocking that potential.”
